Google Analytics Item-Scoped Dimensions for Transaction Tracking

Overview
Google Analytics allows you to track user interactions with your site, and one of the key ways to gain deeper insights into user behavior is through custom dimensions. When dealing with transactions, such as purchases, it’s often useful to track item-specific data (like product names, categories, or SKUs) using the Item-Scoped Dimensions feature. This allows you to segment your transaction data by individual items in a purchase, providing valuable insights into the products being bought and their relationship to other metrics.

To achieve this, you need to configure a custom dimension in Google Analytics that pulls item-specific data from your Google Tag Manager (GTM) setup, specifically from the transactionProducts array in the GTM data layer. This approach is particularly useful for detailed eCommerce reporting.

Prerequisites
Ensure that you have set up a tag in GTM that passes the transactionProducts to a Google Analytics event that supports the items parameter. This is crucial for capturing item-specific data for your reports.
See Google Analytics events that support the items parameter here: Google Analytics Event Reference for Purchase
See how to set up these events, eg purchase, here: Recommended GTM tags

Steps:

1. Navigate to Google Analytics:

   • Log in to your Google Analytics account.
   • Go to Admin (located at the bottom left of the screen).
   • Under the Property settings column, click Data Display and then Custom Definitions.

2. Create a Custom Dimension:

   • Click the Create Custom Dimension button.
   • Give your custom dimension a name (this can be anything descriptive, such as "Product Category" or "Recurring Purchase Enabled").
   • Set the Scope to Item. This ensures that the dimension will be tied to individual products in the transaction.
   • In the Item Parameter field, enter the exact value from the transactionProducts array in the GTM data layer that you want to pull into Google Analytics. For example, if you want to track transactionProducts.recurringPurchaseEnabled, you would use recurringPurchaseEnabled.

3. Save the Custom Dimension:
   After filling in the details, click Save to create the custom dimension.

Note:

• Custom item definitions do not appear in the Google Analytics DebugView, so you won’t be able to immediately see the data during testing.
• Once the event is triggered through the UI, it can take up to 24 hours for data to show up in your Google Analytics reports.

How to View Your Data:

1. Navigate to the Explore Section:

   • Go to Explore in Google Analytics.
   • Choose Freeform as your exploration type.

2. Add Your Custom Dimension:

   • Under the Variables panel on the left, click the + button next to Dimensions.
   • Search for the custom dimension you just created (e.g., "Recurring Purchase Enabled" or whatever you named the dimension).
   • Click Import to add it to your exploration.

3. Drag and Drop the Dimension:

   • Drag the newly added dimension to the Rows or Columns section of your exploration to visualize the data for each item in your transaction.
   • You can now view how each product, based on the item-specific dimension, performs in relation to other metrics like revenue, sessions, or conversion rates.

By using item-scoped dimensions in Google Analytics, you can get detailed insights into the performance of individual products, helping you optimize your eCommerce strategy and make data-driven decisions.